Jennifer Grey Biography: 

Jennifer Grey first grabbed media and tabloid attention as the spiteful sister of Matthew Broderick in John Hughes's amusing tale of teen frustration and upheaval "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986). But she is perhaps best known for her starring role as Frances 'Baby' Houseman in the smash hit "Dirty Dancing" working with Patrick Swayze (1987). In "Dirty Dancing" the actress showed her skill to portray innocence with deep undertones of sin, fear and loathing.

Even though she hailed from a show business inclined family (her grandfather was the comic Mickey Katz, her mother was singer Jo Wilder), Grey was not permitted to perform as a young girl. However, she did spend a lot of time backstage when her father was appearing on Broadway. After her high school graduation, Grey studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse and made her professional debut dancing in a Dr. Pepper television commercial. 

Jennifer's stage and theater work began as an understudy in the New York production of "Album", directed by Joan Micklin Silver (1980); and she later appeared in the Chicago production of the play. Jennifer Grey's Broadway introduction did not happen until 1993 with "Twilight of the Golds", where she played a dim woman dealing with the chance that her unborn child might grow up to be homosexual.

The actress found more fulfilling roles in features. After making her debut as Daryl Hannah's disorderly Italian friend in "Reckless" (1984), Grey went on to play a gangster's spy in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Cotton Club" working with famed Richard Gere, and then as a freedom fighter battling Russian and Cuban forces in "Red Dawn" working once again with Patrick Swayze and a young Charlie Sheen (both 1984). By the late 1980's with the success of "Dirty Dancing", Jennifer Grey  had a achieved leading lady status and sexy Hollywood celebrity fame, but future worthwhile roles seemed to dry up. 

Grey appeared in a musical role alongside Madonna and Matt Dillon in the "American Playhouse" production "Bloodhounds of Broadway" in 1989, but her next leading role, opposite Matthew Modine, was in the slow and disappointing "Wind" (1992). Her next two movies, "Lover's Knot" with Tim Curry and "Portraits of a Killer" (both 1996), also failed to bring the thrill to tabloid critics and audiences.

Moving next to television projects, Grey played in a handful of highly dramatic roles, most notably Rita Schwerner, wife of the murdered civil rights activist Mickey Schwerner (Tom Hulce) in the top-quality television documentary and drama "Murder in Mississippi" (NBC, 1990). 

She has also appeared as a sharp and intelligent lawyer in the television series "Criminal Justice" (HBO, 1990) and the action adventure thriller "A Case for Murder" (USA Network, 1993). Jennifer then scored as an aspirant actress who becomes friends with both an elderly widow (Shirley MacLaine) and her neighbor (Liza Minnelli) in "The West Side Waltz" (CBS, 1995). 

Also in 2005, she appeared as the spoiled rich girl and former friend of Jennifer Aniston's character Rachel on the hit NBC situation comedy "Friends".

Grey basically played herself in a two season run on the peculiar ABC situation comedy, "It's like, you know" (1999-2000). Hired and cast as an actress named Jennifer Grey, she was up for anything, spoofing her career, her botched plastic surgery, and other personal and professional ups and downs.

• Born:
  on 03/26/1960 in New York, New York
• Job Titles:
  Actor, Dancer

Family

• Brother: James Grey. younger
• Daughter: Stella Gregg. born on December 4, 2001
• Father: Joel Grey. Oscar-winner for his supporting role in "Cabaret" (1972)
• Grandfather: Mickey Katz.
• Mother: Jo Wilder.

Significant Others

• Companion: George Stephanopoulos. dated in 1992; no longer together
• Companion: Johnny Depp. engaged in 1990; no longer together
• Companion: Liam Neeson. dated briefly
• Companion: Matthew Broderick. together in the late 1980s
• Companion: William Baldwin. no longer together

Education

• Dalton School, New York, New York, 1978
   

 

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